The Department's purpose

In the “Annual Report for year ended 30 June 2007”

The Department was set up under the Conservation Act 1987 and has powers and functions under other Acts. The Act defines conservation as: ‘the preservation and protection of natural and historic resources for the purpose of maintaining their intrinsic values, providing for their appreciation and recreational enjoyment by the public, and safeguarding the options of future generations’.

The Department’s mission is:

To conserve New Zealand’s natural and historic heritage for all to enjoy now and in the future.

To help achieve this vision and fulfil its legislated conservation responsibilities, the Department has identified two inter-related high level outcomes:

Protection: New Zealand’s natural and historic heritage is protected and restored.

Appreciation: People enjoy and benefit from New Zealand’s natural and historic heritage and are connected with conservation.

The link between the Department’s outcomes and outputs, and the Government’s priorities for the next decade are shown in Figure 1.

Public sector outcomes

As well as delivering on its Protection and Appreciation outcomes, the Department also contributes to wider Government goals through joint work with several other government agencies. This includes: implementation of the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy (the Department’s protection work), the Department’s role in the national biosecurity system (led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry) and contributing to Treaty settlement negotiations.

The Department’s collaborative work on integrated policy responses helps ensure a common understanding of respective roles, and complements the Department’s work to fulfil its legislated conservation responsibilities. The more significant of these relationships are governed by agreed memoranda of understanding. The Protection section of this Annual Report includes descriptions of some examples of the Department’s joint policy work.